New animated movies announced by DreamWorks through to 2016

September 12, 2012 - By Alex

If you’ve been following the industry and specifically DreamWorks Animation, you might know by now that they decided to turn away from their long-time distribution partner Paramount Pictures and teamed up with 20th Century Fox. So if you’ve gotten used to seeing the mountain logo before any new animated movies from DreamWorks, well you should know that Rise of the Guardians, out on November 21st, will be the last time you’ll be able to enjoy that view.

For the vast majority of you guys out there, these are just behind the scenes shenanigans that won’t have much to any effect on the flicks or your viewing pleasure. But if you want to know when the next How to Train Your Dragon films come out, when Po returns for some more fighting action, or what’s in store for the Madagascar series, then look no further.

On Sunday DreamWorks announced their new animated movies release schedule for the 2013-2016 period, and it looks like this:

The Croods – March 22, 2013

Turbo – July 19, 2013

Mr. Peabody & Sherman – November 1, 2013

Me and My Shadow – March 14, 2014

How to Train Your Dragon 2 – June 20, 2014

Happy Smekday! – November 26, 2014

The Penguins Of Madagascar – March 27, 2015

Trolls (working title) – June 5, 2015

B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations – November 6, 2015

Mumbai Musical (working title) – December 19, 2015

Kung Fu Panda 3 – March 18, 2016

How to Train Your Dragon 3 – June 18, 2016

As you can see, they plan to release anywhere from 3 to 4 films each year (2016 is most likely not fully planned yet) and to my surprise 2013 will offer no sequels at all. The Croods sounds like something you get from a dirty toilet, Turbo has potential (the story of a garden snail that dreams of winning the Indy 500) and Mr. Peabody & Sherman has Rob Minkoff (The Lion King, Stuart Little) in the director chair.

2014 brings How to Train Your Dragon 2, the first sequel to the very successful 2010 original. There are also two non-sequels, Me and My Shadow, a film that’s supposed to blend traditional animation with CG, and Happy Smekday!, based on a children’s book by Adam Rex.

2015 is where things get crazy with 4 films, a new record for the studio. We start the year with The Penguins of Madagascar, a spin-off from the hit franchise that will have its 3rd film come out on DVD and Blue-Ray very soon, Trolls, presumably based on some kind of dolls or something, B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations has ghosts in it (so why not release the damn thing a week earlier for Halloween) and Mumbai Musical, exactly what it sounds like.

Finally in 2016 we get Kung Fu Panda 3, really sucks that we must wait so long, and How to Train Your Dragon 3. Oh yes, DreamWorks are really pushing this franchise, probably hoping it turns into the next Shrek. Now as far as I remember they never released sequels with only 2 years between them so here’s a first and expect some strong ties between How To Train Your Dragon 2 and 3, maybe a cliff-hanger ending.

A notable absence from this list, for me at least, is that of Puss in Boots. While not as successful in North America, it made $60 million more than How to Train Your Dragon worldwide, all on smaller budget ($130 million versus $165 for Dragon).

So which films are you most looking forward from the above list? I know I’ll be down for some penguin madness from Skipper, Rico, Kowalsky and Private.